Awakening
by Steelfeathers
Summary: A new take on the awakening of the minicons on earth.
1. lost in the storm

1Here goes my second attempt at a story. This one will probably be more of a tragedy then my first, and at first it will probably be a lot more violent. Fear not, though, for like all my stories, this one will have a silver lining and a happy ending.

Enjoy!

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Staring around at the dark and formidable trees pressing in on us for what felt like the fiftieth time since the sun went down, my exhausted mind couldn't resist a lame attempt at humor. Turning to her friend as she plopped down on a moss-covered rock and throwing up her hands, she sighed, "Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill?"

Jonas snickered and shrugged off his backpack with a grunt, sitting down next to her.

"Cause they ran out during the half-price sale at Walmart." She snorted and took off her own backpack, fumbling around in the twilight for her lantern. As she flicked it on, the small clearing was bathed in a dim, suffusing sphere of light that made the looming trees appear even more dark and foreboding in contrast. At least now though they could see what they were doing.

"Do you think they'll wait until after they've found us and brought us home to kill us or just do it right here?" She asked ruefully, now working on getting her blistered and swollen feet out of her hiking boots.

"The key there Neera is IF they find us... Which they might not, considering how hopelessly lost we are now..."

Neera rolled her eyes at Jonas as she popped her first shoe off, wiggling her toes with a sigh of relief. He wrinkled his nose leaning away from her on the rock.

"Geez Neera, do you have to take off your shoes?"

The blonde-haired girl glared at him with her soft gray eyes.

"YES. My feet are killing me. Would you rather have to put up with me complaining?"

Jonas- wisely- didn't answer. He stared off into the inscrutable darkness, the hair on the back of his neck prickling with the cool breeze that stirred the pine branches, ticking his nose with the scent of ozone. That coupled with the stagnant humidity of the black air told him that it was going to rain. Out of the corner of his eye Jonas saw a second shoe pop off.

"Hey Neera? I think we should find some shelter. I have a feeling it's going to rain."

She looked up at the dark, starless sky, agreeing with Jonas' instincts, seeing as he was usually right.

"Wouldn't it be great if we had made it back to the school cabins by now? How much you want to bet that they haven't even noticed that we're gone?"

He nodded, a smile tugging against his depressed frown.

"Or worse, assumed that we're making out somewhere."

"Ugh!"

"Exactly." He stopped, something catching his eye in the light of the lantern.

"Hey, do you see that?" Neera looked up at him curiously from wiggling her blistered toes.

"See what?" Jonas didn't answer, but slowly stood up and walked across the clearing, moving a pine branch out of the way. Half buried beneath the pine straw was a green, pulsating rock-thing. He backed up slowly, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

"Neera, I think you should see this..." Curious, Neera picked her way barefoot over to where Jonas stood entranced. Her brows knitted together at the sight of the green rock, wonder over riding fear.

"What is it?" She asked, kneeing down and reaching out a hand to it.

"Don't touch it Neera!" But his warning came too late. Drawn almost against her will, Neera laid her hand on it and tried to pick it up. Finding it was half buried, she dug away at the dirt around it until it came free, then sat back on her heels examining what looked line a hexagonal plate. The fingers of her right hand trailed over some raised markings on its front.

Suddenly, pain exploded in her head as electricity surged up her arm from the glowing green panel. Neera cried out and tried to drop it, but couldn't. Jonas started to yell her name and she realized that she had fallen to the ground. Darkness rapidly enveloped her, blotting out all feeling save for the strange sensation of a presence trailing gently over the surface of her mind. The last thing she saw was Jonas' worried face above her, and behind him, a helicopter soaring towards them just as an icy curtain of rain fell to earth. Then, she knew no more.

_A voice cackled nearby, answered by a scream. There was the sound of scrambling, and then Jonas' hands tugging at her, pulling her urgently into the woods. Another voice echoed through the clearing, high-pitched and whining, as the sound of helicopter blades whooshed overhead, buffeting her with currents of air. Jonas kept dragging her along_, _and she dimly became aware of the cold rain striking her face and arms, turning the ground beneath her to mud._

_The voice laughed again_ _as something rushed by her overhead. Suddenly Jonas was gone, and she was alone again. After a long while of drifting through the blackness, she heard a tortured scream pierce the night like a jagged pike in her mind. Jonas! Neera tried to move, but her limbs wouldn't respond. Strong, unfamiliar hands came down and lifted her out of the mud. Darkness descended again, and she drifted once again beneath the icy waters of unconsciousness like a swimmer drowning at sea._

Cold. Neera's whole body was cold. She started to shiver violently under her sopping wet clothes, hugging her arms around herself to get warm. Her eyes resisted being opened as though they had been clamped shut, and she had to blink furiously to get them to stay open. Neera wondered why she had bothered, as it was as dark with her eyes closed as it was when they were open.

She moved her arm and found that it resisted lifting, restrained as it was beneath the weight of a thick blanket. A shiver racked her body again, and she pulled the blanket closer around her. Pain pressed in behind her eyes as though a bad migraine was coming on, and she buried her face in her arms, squeezing her eyes shut to try to ward it off.

Despite how strong she had always tried to be, everything that had happened finally caught up with her, and Neera sobbed openly into her arms, just wanting to go home.

A soft noise came from behind her, as light as the footfalls of a mouse, causing her to tense abruptly.

"Don't be afraid."

The gentle presence brushed over her mind again, and Neera flinched away instinctually.

_Don't be afraid_

The words were spoken softly within her mind, and the presence slowly encircled her mind

like liquid warmth flowing through her, easing her shivering. She hesitated, and the presence, sensing her fear, withdrew quietly from her mind, leaving her feeling strangely empty. Neera turned, but couldn't see anything through the darkness.

"Whose there?" She asked, her voice cracking. The thing shifted, and a dim glow lighted the area, revealing it to be the inside of an enormous cave. What caught her attention though like an icy fist around her heart was what the thing was.

It was a robot.


	2. Revelations and Acceptance

1

Don't worry, the action will pick up very quickly, but I thought this story needed a little back-story to hold up the long plot that I have planned for this fic. Please excuse grammatical and spelling errors- I was writing this during "The State of The Union" address.

Also, forgive my ignorance of G1 history, as I have never seen the show myself. I may slip at times.

NOTE: Cross over (sort of) with G1

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Slightly more than about seven feet tall, the light coming from a patch on its shoulder gleamed off its burnished silver armor that had been dented and streaked in places with mud. It's angular face was set in an expression of worry (if it were even possible to show emotion at all) as the robot looked at her. Slowly it approached her.

Seized by fear, she scrambled backwards, fighting to get out from under the tangle of blankets. It stepped forward, reaching out to her.

"Please, I mean you no harm! You have nothing to fear from me." Neera scampered back against the wall of the cave, still facing the approaching robot.

"What are you! What do you want with me?" Her voice trembled with built up fear and exhaustion as she continued to back away from the robot.

"My name is Axel. I'm a minicon from the planet Cybertron. I brought you here to keep you safe from Cyclonus when he came after you, though I know not for what purpose."

"What about Jonas? What happened to him?" Axel stopped in his approach.

"I... don't know. By the time I had come fully out of Hibernation, Cyclous was already leaving. I haven't seen anything of your companion."

Neera's mind froze, her heart contracting painfully within her chest. She sobbed with fear for him, stumbling backwards through the darkened cave. She felt cold again, so cold, and began to shiver violently, her wet clothes dripping onto the cave floor. Millions of questions crowded out all rational thought in her mind, but at the same time, she couldn't find the will to ask a single one.

Stepping back again, Neera's foot caught on a rock, and she stumbled, falling backwards into a puddle of water. Great, she thought, pushing herself to her knees, add insult to injury.

_Neera..._

The single word reverberated through her mind, and she clapped her hands to her temples, trying to force it out.

"No..." she hissed. "Get out of my head!" The presence retreated to the edges of her mind, but didn't leave entirely. Axel approached her again, kneeling by her side and gently taking her by the upper arm, helping her to her feet. By the dim light coming from its shoulder she could see the volumes of untold emotions etched onto its face (pity?) that were punctured by a fleeting grin.

"You know, you're awfully wet." Neera looked down at herself, at her clothes streaked with grime that dripped onto her bare feet, and had to agree. She gave a small sob punctured by a mirthless laugh at how pathetic she must have looked. All the same though, her looks didn't exactly take precedence in her thoughts.

"Yeah, what was your first clue?" She snorted back, trying to pull away from Axel's gentle, yet almost possessive, grip on her arm. Jonas was in trouble, that was certain, and she had to find him before... she couldn't (wouldn't?) Fill in the blank. This 'Cyclous' thing sounded maniacal in the worst possible way.

Axel looked at her for a moment when Neera tried to reclaim her arm, then a sudden understanding frown creased his face.

"I know you care about Jonas and want to find him, but it's simply far too dangerous. We have no idea where Cyclonus has taken him..."

Neera sensed the hidden meaning hanging in the air, but she refused to yield her hope to it. Jonas was still alive.

He had to be.

She pulled at her arm again and this time he let her have it. Turning away, shivering slightly, she said;

"I'm going to find him." It was an honest statement. And it was final. A feeling of purpose came over Neera, though tears still trailed down her cheeks. She would find him. Somehow.

Turning away against the protests of her own fatigued body racked by trembling cold, Neera resolutely stalked away from the robot in the direction that she somehow knew to be the way outside, unheeding of the boundless darkness around her.

She hadn't gone two steps though when the presence returned to her.

_"I can't let you."_ The word reverberated both within her head and around the cave, tinged with a note of earnest desperation. Neera froze in place, her breath lodged in her throat.

The robot. Oh God, the robot. It was behind her.

-No, it was inside of her mind.

It was both.

Neera whirled around to face its shadowed form, pointing a trembling finger at it as though to strike it down with the might of heaven.

"What have you done to me? How come I can hear you inside my head!" She yelled, her voice shrill and cracking. She could tell by its body language that it wanted to approach her, but decided against it, lowering its head in a shameful manner. Slowly, unsurely, Axel's presence withdrew from her mind, leaving her with the shreds of a throbbing headache.

"I-I am sorry." He intoned after a while. "I suppose that I should have explained myself more thoroughly." She waited for more, but Axel seemed to be lost in thought. After a long while he looked up at her.

"Maybe it would be easier to show you."

The robot turned, and walked father into the cavern, and Neera, sheerly out of curiously, followed hesitantly along. It seemed to take ages to reach where they were going, but looking back she supposed that it had only been about two minutes. Her mind was worn, making thinking clearly difficult.

At first, Neera didn't know what to make of it.

Axel brightened the light coming from the patch on his shoulder so that she could see the outline of an enormous cavern. And right at her feet was a twisted, descending staircase that had to be at least eight feet wide. Farther out she could see immense columns spiraling up into the darkness that were laced with rusted circuitry. Wires as thick as her wrist looped down from above like knotted vines. The walls of the cave were really sheets of smooth metal that had had punctures torn through them as long as a sofa with the apparent ease of silk being rent in two.

"What is this place?" She asked, entranced by the destruction around her that had been frozen in place as though turned to stone by a Gorgon's glare.

"This," Axel started solemnly, stepping up beside her with a grim look about him, "Is the Ark."

"What's the Ark?" She asked again, bluntly.

"It is- was- our only means of escape from our home planet, Cyberton." Neera looked over at him curiously, but he didn't meet her gaze.

"About two million years ago, civil war broke out on our planet. At the time, our government was controlled by the military. There was an official name for the army, but everyone called them the Decepticons."

He drew a rattling breath.

"Up until that time, the system had been working relatively well. The Decepticons kept order under the Council's decisions, and- for the most part- our planet was peaceful. For a long time the Decepticons were known for their incredible acts of bravery, self discipline and sense of honor."

"But..." Neera urged him softly.

"But," Axel resumed, "Then there was a General named Megatron. Loyal, brave, strong, he lived hanging off of the council's every word. It was widely known that he aspired to a position on the council. And by all appearances, he deserved it to. But one of the Elders- Alpha Trion- saw through Megatron. Though he never directly voiced it, he never trusted Megatron and surreptiously kept him from being on the council. Somehow, Megatron found out. He became enraged at everyone on the council- especially Alpha Trion."

"But I thought you said that Megatron was loyal, brave and strong?" Neera asked softly.

Axel nodded grimly.

"Yes, but he also had a streak of vicious ruthlessness that went all the way to his spark core. He would go off on his troops for the simplest little things. Though there was no evidence to directly link him with it, one of his soldiers was crushed to death between some parts of moving machinery just after insulting him."

Neera had gone very pale.

"So what happened?"

"After he was denied a position on the council, the Megatron every one had known vanished. He started endorsing radical ideas of anarchy, inveighing against the council and everything they stood for. Eventually, he was relieved of duty from his position of general for mental instability. For a long time afterwards he simply vanished, and many thought he had died. Then suddenly he just reappeared, and all of his old supporters flocked to him, forming a tangent group who called themselves 'The True Decepticons'. They began attacking everyone who didn't jump to support them, using the whole 'either-you're-with-us-or-against-us' theology."

"Did they win?"

"Not exactly, since they weren't fighting against anyone per say. But after a time everything on the planet fell under their control. Life was...terrible. Then, to everyone's surprise, another faction arose who called themselves the Autobots, lead by Optimus Prime."

"Who's he?"

"No one's really sure, he just appeared, caring an artifact from legend called the Matrix. And don't ask, because I don't know what it is." He continued, answering her questioning look.

"To make a long story short, a massive civil war broke out between the Autobots and the Decepticons. The Autobots represented something we hadn't seen in so long."

"What?"

"Hope. They gave us hope that we would one day be free again. But such is the nature of warfare that the stalemate between the two factions grew to an arms race. If one invented armor, the other would invent armor piercing rounds. It escalated until out entire planet was in ruins. Then, a new variable was added to the equation; us. We could link with them, giving them unbridled new power. If the war had been bad before, it was worse now. We- the minicons- knew that we had to leave to avoid being used by either side and thus escalate the destruction. So we secretly built the Ark to slip away undetected. But there must have been a spy who ratted us out, because a Decepticon ambush was waiting for us on the edge of space. Somehow we still managed to get away by engaging the warp drive just in the nick of time, escaping light-years away from Cybertron. But despite our good fortune, we had been hit by a stray shot, taking out our navigation systems. So we ended up having to make the jump blind."

Neera's head spun with the amount of information she was receiving, and she lifted a shaking hand to brush her hair out of her eyes.

"Let me guess; you crash-landed here, right?"

Axel gestured at the destruction.

"What was your first clue?" He asked with a rueful smile, throwing her own rib right back at her.

"To protect us from the inevitably violent landing, we went into hibernation in panels like the one you found, and when the ship crashed, I can only assume that they were all scattered."

Neera gasped.

"You mean... there's more of you all over the planet?"

"Yes." He nodded.

"Good God..." Neera muttered. "So... what happened when I..."

"Touched the panel?" Axel finished for her. Neera nodded mutely. He sighed.

"I-I acted on instinct. I am truly sorry for the pain the binary linking process causing you, but it was not designed with the frailties of human neural pathways in mind. Until now, I would not have even thought it possible for it to happen with an organic.

Neera drew a deep rattling breath, running both of her hands through her short, tousled hair and staring around at the inside of the Ark. She wondered why it was built so large considering that Axel wasn't much larger than she was.

"What's- what's the 'binary linking process'? What... did it do to me?"

Axel bowed his head, and for a moment Neera wondered if he was going to answer her.

Then, she felt the presence- Axel's presence- snaking into her mind and gently wrapping itself around her consciousness like a warm embrace, and she shrank away from the unfamiliar mental contact.

_There's nothing to be afraid of._ He whispered softly. She shuddered against the alien feeling of something being inside her mind, the pressure behind her eyes returning.

Then, a thought came to her.

_CAN YOU HEAR ME? _She shouted within her own mind.

_Yes, but you don't need to yell, I can hear you just fine._

_How? How can I be hearing you at all?_

_Normally to be reanimated, sections of code from the minicon's partner are used like a password to 'unlock' the panel. I can only assume that my programing sought out the code from your mind, rewriting parts of your neural pathways in the process when it found something that it could use_ _awaken me. It was never intended to happen that way..._

_So... I guess I'm your partner now?_

"Yes." Axel answered out loud. Neera sighed, then shrugged her shoulders helplessly.

"Can't say that I'm thrilled with the idea of having my mind tampered with, but there's not really anything I can do about it now."

"I never meant to-" Axel began.

"I know! It's... oaky, I'm not blaming you. I guess I should actually be thanking you for saving me, though," She hugged herself, suddenly acutely aware again of how cold she was. And unbidden, her thoughts went strait back to Jonas.

Axel stepped forward to her, so very happy that she didn't flinch away from him.

"We'll find him- I'm not trying to say that we won't ever go looking for him- but just not right now. I told you about Megatron. Well, Cyclonus is one of his lackeys, and there's simply no way that we'll be able to get Jonas back from him even if we knew where he was. You're soaked to the bone and might be unknowingly injured- no matter how much you may want to deny it. Let's just get through tonight and then try to find re-enforcements. Ok?"

Neera immediately wanted to protest, but she had to see the logic of his argument.

"And," He added more softly, "Because you are my partner I am bound by my programming to protect you- even if it means going against your wishes."

Neera opened her mouth, then closed it again, nodding in defeat. She was cold, she was tired, and her body ached as though she had been beaten. Even more disturbing though was the pain that had been steadily building behind her eyes. She assumed it was because of the recent modifications her mind had been forced to undergo. The mere thought made her shake and the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

Axel saw this, and touched her shoulder gently, radiating concern.

"I'm ok..." She said weakly, hugging herself tighter. No sooner had she uttered the words then they seemed to jinx her. A strange dizziness overcame her, and she teetered dangerously. Axel caught her in his strong grip, and lifted her effortlessly from the ground despite her weak protests. Fog crowded in on her mind, covering the distant feeling of being carried somewhere nestled safely in strong steel arms.

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Neera awoke later- make later- gasping and struggling with the demons that had haunted her in nightmares. She reached out blindly, tears of overwhelming fear streaming down her face, her heart screaming with a pain whose source she could not quite remember.

As if answering her cries for help, warmth encircled her terrified mind, dulling the blade edge of the nightmare. Strong arms came around her, gently pulling her into a secure embrace. Neera turned and buried her head against Axel's strangely warm shoulder, openly sobbing. She felt him wrap and blanket around her.

Softly, ever so softly, he began to sing to her in words that she could not quite understand. Slowly the nightmare began to depart from her mind, leaving only the slow, comforting song. He wrapped his mind around her, and for the first time, Neera welcomed his presence.


	3. Captured!

1Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews! Don't worry- they'll meet up with the autobots soon, but they have an another adventure first. (Yay!)

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Neera woke up slowly, the fuzziness of sleep dissipating like fog before the morning sun. She struggled against the force rapidly propelling her into awareness, wanting to do nothing more than to collapse again into the warm, dark embrace of sleep. After a while she could fight it no longer, and she felt her eyes flutter open against the weight pressing them closed.

"Good morning." A soft timbre called from somewhere beside her. Though momentarily forgotten, all that had happened the night before came flooding back to her. She was still lost. Jonas had vanished and could be hurt. Her family and friends probably assumed the worst and her picture would soon appear on the backs of milk cartons.

At the thought of her family, Neera's heart contracted painfully within her, the headache coming back again.

"If you can call it 'good'." She whispered, rolling to her side. Axel sat cross-legged beside her, watching her intently. While she had been unconscious it seemed that he had set up a sort of makeshift bed for her that wasn't all that uncomfortable.

Axel cocked his head in question, looking absurdly like a dog that had followed her home.

"I don't understand. I thought 'Good morning' was an appropriate human greeting to use when someone came out of recharge?" Neera sputtered for a moment, then gave a brief laugh.

"Nah, you were right. I was just being cynical." She caught herself, thinking of something. "Hey, I thought you were from another planet? So how'd you know what to say at all?"

"The internet."

"Oh..."

He grinned mischievously. "I can do a lot of neat tricks- one of which is logging onto the internet wirelessly from anywhere."

Neera pointed a finger at him. "Stop doing that."

Axel tried to look innocent. "What?"

"THAT. Answering my questions before I actually ask them. You may be able to be inside my mind and all- but God! Give me the simply dignity of being able to ask the stupid question _before_ you give the obvious answer!"Axel snickered.

Suddenly Neera's stomach grumbled loudly in demand for food, and she cursed herself for leaving her backpack - and shoes- back in the clearing. She threw the blankets off of herself, but then squealed and immediately clutched them tightly to her chest.

"DUDE! What'cha do with my clothes!" She yelled angrily.

"They were soaking, so I hung them up to dry-"

"Well, go get them or something! I can't just run around naked!"

Axel sighed and gave a half hearted shrug, unfolding his legs and retrieving her stiff, cold - but completely dry- clothes.

Neera made a shooing motion with her hand.

"Well, turn around or something! You can't just stand there staring at me when I'm naked!"

Axel grudgingly obliged, turning his back to her.

"You know of course that you're being illogical. I already saw you naked when I removed your clothes."

Neera flushed hotly, her face lighting up a cherry red.

"Pervert." She muttered, pulling on her stiff, mud caked clothes. They were itchy, they were uncomfortable, but they were clothes none the less.

"Alright, I'm decent." She called when she had finished buttoning her shirt.

Axel turned back to her. Thankfully, he made no comment about her appearance. Bending down to fold up the dechevled pile of blankets, a plan slowly formed in Neera's mind.

"Ok. First things first- I need to go back and get my back pack and shoes so I can have something to eat. Then... I'm going after Jonas. I can't risk telling my parent where I am, or more importantly, I can't tell them about YOU. Parents tend to wig about that sort of thing." She added in explanation.

As she folded the blankets, she noticed that they were slightly wet, probably from when she had been lying on them in her soaking clothes...

Suddenly, an idea clicked in her mind.

"And how do you plan to find him?" Axel asked, but Neera didn't pay him any attention. In one hand she felt the bone-dry material of her shirt, and in the other, the slightly damp blanket.

"Axel... This is a cave. Things don't dry in caves- they stay stagnant and wet because there's no actively flowing air..."

She spun around to face him.

"Where exactly did you hang up my clothes?" The question took him completely by surprise.

"Uh... just over there." He answered hesitantly. "Why?" Neera jogged over to where he had pointed, examining all around the broad, flat rock that they had been lying on, completely ignoring his question.

"There has to be an opening to outside here somewhere..." she muttered to herself. "That's where the air has to be coming from..."

"I thought that you were intent on finding Jonas?" Axel asked, walking up behind her.

Neera nodded grimly, feeling with her small hands every crag in the rock.

"I am. This will help us with my plan. -ah ha!" She cheered, her hand brushing over a cool stream of air blowing into the cave.

"This-" she said, pushing against the boulder blocking the air vent, "Is our escape hatch."

"Neera..." Axel began warningly, "I HOPE that you're not planning on doing anything exceedingly dangerous..."

Neera rolled her eyes, her muscles straining against the unyielding rock.

"That depends on your definition of 'dangerous' _mother..._"She gave one final mighty push, then sank against the boulder in defeat, breathing heavily.

"Hello! I could use some help over here." She panted. For a minute Axel remained motionless, and she wondered if he was going to help her at all. Then slowly he unfolded his arms and came up behind her. Neera turned back to the boulder, bracing her hands against it as Axel put his strong arms on either side of her.

"Push..." She groaned. Axel grunted with the effort, and Neera could see the thick muscle cables in his arms straining. Slowly, ever so slowly, the boulder was pushed aside. When the small opening behind it was just barely large enough for her to squeeze through, Neera sagged against the rock , sweat rolling down her forehead.

Axel, his arms still braced on either side of her, made a noise curiously like heavy breathing, but Neera dismissed it.

"This hole probably leads to the surface." She said between breaths, trying to wipe the sweat off of her face with her sleeve but only succeeding in streaking it with mud.

"And just how does your plan involve a hole to the surface?"

"Well, I was thinking, and I realized that you were right when you said that we could never track that 'Cyclonus' thing. So, instead, we'll bring him to us."

Axel sighed. "Neera-" He began wearily.

"Look! You said he was after the minicons, right? So pretty soon he's going to track you- and me- down and come looking for us. This way at least, we'll be ready when he gets here."

Axel motioned for her to continue.

"Ok, here's the plan. I'm guessing that this Cyclonus dude is a big guy judging by the size of the Ark. So when he comes back here looking for us, I'll act all scared like and run into this cave. It's a dead end, so if you somehow seal off the exit while I lure him in here, he'll be trapped, and I'll make my miraculous get way through that hole right there."

Neera paused, waiting for a reaction. Axel leaned back against the cave wall, folding his arms.

"There are a few problems with your plan. First, there's no way in the Pit I'm going to let you be the live bait- escape route or no escape route. Second- how do you know he won't just shoot you on sight instead?"

"He won't cause he probably will want me to get to you."

"And third," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "What do you plan to do with him when you have him trapped here?"

Neera hesitated, looking sheepish.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead yet."

"And fourth, he has the ability to teleport away instantly, so even if it all does go according to plan, it will just be a waste."

Neera sighed in defeat, putting a hand to her eyes.

"You're right..._ again_." She said. Tears sprang into her eyes.

_How am I supposed to rescue Jonas now, or even find him? _She whispered mentally, too emotionally drained to say it out loud. Not to mention the fact that her stomach was knotted with hunger.

Axel's presence came into her mind like the gentle brush of the first rays of dawn, warming her from the inside out. But for once, he didn't have an answer either.

_I'm sorry..._

Neera shook her head.

_Please don't be. I- _

There was a deep rumbling sound from somewhere within the cave, and she stopped short, listening.

"Did you hear that?" She whispered urgently. Rising almost without violation from the boulder, Neera walked as if entranced towards the source of the noise. Darkness as thick and as tangible an oily curtain enshrouded the rest of the cave, hiding within its boundless folds the source of the noise. Neera strained her eyes around the corner of a tunnel leading into the cave, but she couldn't she her hand in front of her face. She held her breath, not daring to even blink.

After a while, she called out to Axel a few paces behind her, "I guess I was just imagining things..."

"Oh, I don't know about that..." Another louder, deeper voice issued from behind her. A bucket of ice cascaded into her stomach and she gasped painfully, rooted to the spot. Slowly, she turned her eyes to look behind her just in time to see a large-than-life purple hand come out of nowhere and snatch her up off the floor with sufficient force to knock the wind from her.

"NEERA!" Axel cried in alarm.

"Ooo! A minicon too!" her captor cried joyously, reaching out to grab the petrified minicon.

"RUN!" Neera screamed at Axel, thrashing wildly. The minicon hesitated, torn between his duty to protect his partner. Too late, he tried to bolt between her captor's legs, and was snatched up from the floor in the giant robot's other purple hand.

Neera looked up, and up, into grinning robot's enormous face who leering down at her.

"He he! Oh goodie! Megatron's going to have a fit when he finds out what I stumbled on right under his nose!" Neera struggled vainly, a fresh and potent wave of fear surging through her at the mention of the evil dictator's name.

The giant robot frowned at her.

"Now now, squishy. There's no need to squirm. I'm sure Starscream and Hook will take _good_ care of you...Who knows? Megatron might even let me keep you as a pet." He laughed a again with that sickening, oily voice that she faintly remembered hearing the night she had found the minicon panel.

Neera gasped.

No, it couldn't be.

The spoke into the air, probably communicating through some sort of comm system.

"Megatron sir! I found the rogue minicon and a squishy!"

-Very good. Bring them back to base, Cyclonus-

All the color drained from Neera's face. It was.

She had been captured by Cyclonus, just like Jonas had.

"Yes Megatron sir!" Cyclonus cried joyfully.

Suddenly, the strangest most indescribable feeling came over her. It felt as though she were collapsing in on herself and being pulled inside out, beginning with the point just above her navel. Dimly she was aware of watching her body literally fall into many pixel-like pieces that rapidly disappeared, only to be reassembled simultaneously somewhere else. Her perceptions were torn between here and there, defying the most basic laws of physics and being in two separate places at the same exact time.

The enormous strain of going through the warp gate was too much for Neera's body. Almost instantly after becoming aware of being in two places at once, her mind winked off into unconsciousness with the vague impression of being somewhere very cold.

Then, there was nothing at all.


	4. Prisoners in the dark

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Neera ached. Everywhere.

She groaned, prying her eyes open to the dazzling light of fluorescent lamps. What had started off earlier as a small headache had quickly transgressed that into a full blown, head throbbing, nausea inducing migraine that flared like a spear through her skull when she opened her eyes. Wincing, she screwed them shut again, reflexively curling her thin body into a ball on the hard, cold surface she was lying on, shivering.

"I don't know, Starscream. This one doesn't seem to be functioning to me." A oily voice drawled near her. Neera flinched when a large finger nudged her in the side, too weak to do anything more.

"Heart-beat; above normal, breathing rate; near hyperventilating, skin temperature; five degrees below normal. Unless my scans are seriously malfunctioning Hook, the female is indeed alive." Another, whiny voice dead-panned. The first - Hook- snorted at the rib, and Neera got the vague impression that it moved away from her.

"So... what exactly does Megatron want with the human anyway?"

"If you hadn't noticed yet, it was with an activated Minicon, meaning that the two must have binary bonded."

"Starscream- that's MY area of expertise-"

"Otherwise I wouldn't tolerate you in here..." the whiny one muttered.

"- and it is highly doubtful that an organic would be able to survive the process."

Neera heard a distant whirring sound, and she wearily cracked open her eyes again. Her vision was blurred, and everything appeared to be smeary blocks of color. Two blobs in particular- a white and red one and a deep blue one- were moving about near her. They slid in and out of focus, and she dimly realized that they were giant robots like Cyclonous.

The red and white robot approached her, grasping her right forearm between its immense fingers. A stab of pain blazed through her skull, and she whimpered, weakly pulling at her arm as black spots crowded in on the edges of her vision.

"Hold still." The whiny one ordered gruffly, though surprisingly, its voice was ever so slightly softer than it had been. Neera, struggling just to stay conscious, simply let her body go limp, wheezing with pain.

Something pricked her in the forearm, and somehow she knew that it was a heavy needle gliding into the vein.

The red and white one moved away from her, leaving Neera lying prone beneath the glaring lights once again. Gathering all her strength into a single motion, she touched the needle in her arm and found a slender tube running from it going off beyond her line of slight.

Her throat was dry, only able to let out a hoarse sound akin to static when she opened her mouth. The blue one was back next to her, reaching down to touch her again.

"Don't touch her, Hook!" The red and white one yelled. Hook, his hand inches from Neera's face, turned his head away to look at the other.

"What's with you, Starscream? It's only a human."

"Yes, a human that might hold the key to multiple bondings! Don't touch her or you'll mess up my scans!" Starscream added.

Hook snorted. "Yeah. Whatever." Neera let out a ragged breath of relief as it moved away from her, shivering again. The pain in her head had turned into a heated throb spiked with moments of intense, flaring pain.

"Look, if you want to make yourself useful, go question the minicon. It's the one that's all silver. It will know if it was binary bonded to the human."

"Fine, sure." The blue one huffed, walking away. There was the sound of doors hissing open then door hissing closed, and Neera was alone with Starscream.

Darkness blotted out her awareness for an unknown length of time, her mind fading in and out of consciousness. Sometime another needle had been put into her other arm, and still another time a giant finger had gently brushed her hair away from her face, and behind it, a stony face broken by a crack of pity stared at her.

Neera turned her head to find the red and white robot at a large workbench of some sort, studying data on a large computer screen.

"What do you want with me?" She rasped, unsure if it could hear her or not. Without turning its head, Starscream answered;

"You binary bonded with a minicon, something that's supposedly impossible for an organic to do. So, naturally, Megatron's very curious about what makes that possible."

Neera let her eyes close, goosebumps rising on her arms with the chill of the unnaturally large room.

"Where's Axel? What have you done with him?" Her voice came with more strength than she actually felt. This time, Starscream turned his helmeted black head towards her.

"Don't you know of his condition? You should." His voice, whiny and condescending, held a note of amusement.

"How..."

"Axel, as you call the minicon, partnered itself with you. You are linked together, giving you the ability to KNOW what is happening to the other. Your link is obviously not as strong as I had originally assumed." He added, almost as an after thought.

Neera, suddenly hopeful, tried to call out to Axel, only to feel like the voice of her mind was choked with a suffocating wad of cotton. She couldn't make a sound. Seeing the struggle plainly on her face, the robot smirked.

"Ah ah ah! We couldn't have you two contacting each other and organizing an escape, could we?" He taunted. "I injected you with a drug that inhibits certain mental functions, namely being able to communicate with your partner."

Neera's eyes drifted to the needle in her arm and the tube leading to it, suddenly far to weak to tear it out of her body like she so desperately wanted. Her mind screamed with the agony of being separated from Axel's presence. Their link was obviously much more powerful than they realized, or Starscream wouldn't be going to the lengths he was to suppress it. Neera turned her head away from him, the only gesture of defiance she could muster. All she had wanted to do was save Jonas. Now, she didn't know how she would be able to save herself.

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Axel groaned as his systems one by one came back on line, automatically running a self diagnostics check. Nothing was damaged beyond what internal repairs could handle.

Slowly, muscle cables grinding against one another, he forced himself to his feet. Where ever he was, it was pitch black.

Immediatly, his CPU went to Neera. He hurriedly did a life sign and body heat scan and found that she was no where near him. His energon pump contacted painfully with fear, knowing she could be anywhere- and in danger.

Axel pressed against the link only to be met with pain. He could feel the fear in Neera's mind but couldn't touch her consciousness when he tried to comfort her. Something separated them like a wall of spikes, increasing his panic ten fold. Feeling his way to the wall, Axel jumped with surprise as a large, dusty door slid open, letting harsh artificial light stream in.

A large figure was shilloutted in the door way. It moved towards him, speaking.

"Well well, lookie what I found! A minicon!" The voice taunted. Axel knew that voice, and hatred rose within him like bile.

"What have you done to Neera, Hook?" The robot ceased in its approach, folding its arms over its large chest plate, green optics glowing in the gloom.

"Oh I haven't done anything. Not sure what Starscream did, though." The flippant words horrified Axel, his spark core crying out in dismay, his mind desperately reaching out to Neera again, only to be forced back.

Hook ginned maliciously. "What's the matter, Minicon? Can't contact the fleshy?"

"WHERE IS SHE HOOK?" Axel yelled.

"Safe, for now. Once Starscream's done with his experiments though, Megatron might decide to dump her body in outer space just for kicks." The evil blue robot threw back its head and laughed like a Hyena.

Axel clenched his fists, wanting to pull his ion cannon out of subspace and blow that triumphant smirk right of his face. It wouldn't help him- or Neera- though. Perhaps he could find a way to rescue Neera if Megatron thought that they weren't linked, since security would be more lax then.

Yes, he would wait until Neera was safe to exact his revenge on his torturer from so long ago.

"So...What's it like Minicon, to be connected to something so useless? I thought you had better taste then that."

Axel's optics blazed with anger only restrained by the urgency to save Neera. His partner came first.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He ground out.

Hook cocked his head in question, touching his chin thoughtful, that hideous grin still marring his features.

"No?"

"No."

Hook laughed. "You're a cool liar, Minicon, as always. I guess three thousand years of hibernation didn't change you at all, did it? If only you hadn't resisted joining the Decepticons you could have been the most powerful among us behind Megatron. I suppose that's why he always took such an interest in you. For a minicon, you're unusually powerful, yet you were never willing to go that extra step. That's what makes you weak." Hook laughed again.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen! You were powerful enough to frighten mighty Megatron, and then you went and bonded to a human!"

"I never bonded to any human." Hook quirked an eye ridge.

"No? Then why- pray tell- was she with you? Who DID activate you? Hm?" Axel tried to cobble together an explanation, but could think of none.

"Hahahah! Poor minicon. Can't even think of a good lie anymore?"

Axel's optics dimmed. Softly, he said;

"I would give anything to take back what I did on Cybertron."

Hook's grin fell.

"Awe well. I guess you really didn't have what it took after all." A perverted light came into his eyes. "I think I'm going to enjoy watching you dismantle yourself after I kill the human. We're going to have _fun _after Starscream's done with her..."

Hook turned on his heal and walked out, the doors screeching closed behind him, leaving Axel in the stiffling darkness once more.

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_My body hurt. _

_I knew that it wouldn't be much longer until the things that monster put into me killed me._

_I stumbled through the dark halls, moving on instinct, the wires that I had broken to escape trailing behind me, my blood leaving small droplets on the metal floor. _

_There was one room open at the end of the hall, and I went in. Consoles five times my height were packed into the room, lines of data and schematics scrolling across their screens. _

_Every part of my body screaming in pain I jumped strait up and collapsed in a heap on the console, my ragged breath coming in short, gurgling gasps. But that wouldn't stop me. I had escaped and come too far to give up._

_I didn't know if it would work._

_My hand pressed serval buttons that I had seen them press before._

_I didn't know if anyone would here me._

_My hand moved again, sending out the distress call. _

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Light years away, in a galaxy unknown to mankind, on a planet made entirely of metal, in a cluttered back room full of stacks of disks and heaps of forgotten gadgets, a light lit up on the console, blinking serenely to the empty room.

Blinking.

Blinking.


	5. Over the Edge

1

I apologize for the atrocity that was the previous chapter. I wrote it late at night... REALLY late at night...my mind wasn't quite functioning properly...it still isn't...

(Kidding! Geez, you people take everything too seriously!)

Thanks to KrystalShaga for correcting me about the color of Cyclonous' hand. I slip up at times as I haven't ever really seen the show. Most of what I know I glean from other fanfics.

Please review!

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**Starscream's Log**

**Stardate: 16-43-21-09**

**Subject: Addendum to combiner research**

**Scans of human subject (2) show 93 probability of a binary link. As of yet, subject (2) is unresponsive to questioning. **

**Scans of minicon subject (1) have confirmed above probability. Subject (1) refuses to coorperate with questioning and denies the binary link between Subjects (1) and (2).**

**Based on the completeness of the binary link between the subjects, it is possible to hypothesize that binary bonding can occur in previously undocumented ways, namely between an organic and a minicon. Further testing is needed to form a conjecture about the rationality of multiple bondings such as in a combiner group. **

Starscream paused thoughtfully in his report, glancing over at the prone human form on the large steel table surrounded by machinery. His mouth settled into a frown, his tree-trunk fingers hovering over the keys. So small. So helpless. So fragile.

He felt no sympathy for the female. Yet he had before, and it unnerved him. Why had he felt an unfamiliar pang of guilt in his spark when she flinched away from him, when her small voice rasped out in fear?

Starscream shook his head, turning back around to his computer screen, trying to concentrate on his work. Megatron wanted him to use the human female to devise a way to have multiple transformers linked with each other, though he didn't know how he was supposed to do that. As far as Starscream knew (which was a considerable amount) a transformer or minicon could only link, permanently, with one other person. But Megatron, being a strategist rather than a scientist, could only lean harder on him to get him to build a combiner, which at the moment didn't seem possible.

Admittedly, the link existing within the human's mind opened up untold areas for speculation on just what binary bonding WAS. But as far as providing him with the mystical key that would allow one transformer to be linked with more than one other, the human was useless.

Unable to write more, Starscream shut down his computer and sat before its darkened screen for a long while, thinking. In its glassy, mirror like surface he could see the dark reflection of the small human curled into a ball on the table, its chest rising and falling softly with each breath. Her short hair splayed out behind her, trailing like silk over her bare, mud-streaked back.

Such a complex creature, that human. A lump of living cells that functioned together to form a single- intelligent- identity that was at the same time so vulnerable. Starscream snorted. What a waist, to be trapped in a design that was so inefficient. He was intensely glad to be what he was: strong, fast, hardy, and nearly immortal by human standards.

Still though, his mind was drawn in wonder to her, and he found himself rising without violation from his chair and stepping over to her, staring down at her prone form.

Suddenly catching himself, he snorted, knowing that staring at her like he was could imply perverted thoughts within his CPU. How illogical! He was a robot, and therefore he felt no sexual lust or desire after the female, though he knew that by human standards she was amazingly beautiful. There was something about the graceful curve of her back and the way her arms covered her knees that reminded him of the striking architecture on Cybertron before the Great War destroyed it all.

She shifted and groaned, and Starscream felt himself unwillingly being moved by how helpless she was. He reached out and let his fingers rest lightly against her back, suddenly able to feel each beat of her tiny heart. Slowly, softly, he stroked her spine with the finger in a rhythmic way, unknowingly opening up a place in his long dead heart for the little human.

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Axel's POV:

I sat on the cold floor with my back against the rusted wall, listening for any little sound. The darkness was unending and unperturbed, so I had long ago shut off my useless optics in favor of directing that power to my audio sensors, waiting in the perpetual black sea of night.

My spark core was clenched with fear, and I was unable to tear my mind away from Neera. Alone as I was I had no way of knowing what Hook might be doing to her.

Alone.

That feeling had taken on a new meaning to me. It had been less than 24 hours yet I felt like I had been with Neera ever since I was first aware of myself. I had grown used to the warmth of her mind, her gentleness, and it had suddenly been torn away from me. I knew she was alive, but beyond that, I was clueless, and it terrified me. I imagined hundreds of terrible things that could be happening to her, and every time I had the irrepressible urge to jump up and blow the door down to get to her.

Is this what binary bonding is all about? I wondered. The constant fear that something had happened to your partner?

Though my internal chronometer told me otherwise, it felt like it had been five years since I had last seen her alive, the loneliness was that intense. I told myself over and over again that if we ever got out of here alive, I would strap her on to my alternate form and never let her off.

My mind went full circle again and came back to the original conundrum of; What did they want with us? Either they were just letting me sweat it out until I told them something- which was unlikely as I had nothing to tell- or they were doing something to Neera instead. My instincts told me that they were suppressing our link somehow, probably with drugs, because they considered us a danger to them. Why? What was so special about our bond that would make them that afraid of us?

I put my head into my hand, remembering the constant pain Neera had been in since the time we bonded. That made no sense either. The headache should have subsided soon after the bonding process was complete, but something prolonged it. It was either a nasty side affect, or changes were still going on within her mind and body.

Neera...

My thoughts spiraled around again, leaving me in the dark both inside and without.

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"Sir, are you sure that this is a good idea? It could be a Decepticon trap to lure us to Earth."

Red Alert protested, only to be straight armed in the face by Ironhide as he tried once again to run right up to Prime.

"Then why would they send it to where no one would ever see it? If I hadn't happened to be looking for a part in that storage room, not one of us would ever have picked it up, which leads me to conclude that whoever it was is indeed a prisoner of war who didn't know where to send the homing beacon." Wheeljack butt in. Prime nodded his head thoughtfully.

"My line of reasoning exactly, which is why I will be taking a small team to earth to investigate."

"But SIR-" Red Alert tried again, only to be snatched back gruffly by Ironhide once more.

"I thought I told you to shove off!" He growled.

"- And why you'll be coming as well, Red Alert."

It was hard to tell who was more horrified; Ironhide or Red Alert.

"But sir!"

"But Optimus!" They shouted simultaneously.

"No protests. You are BOTH going. I need the talents that each of you has to offer." They looked at each other with blatant disdain, not really sure whether to be pleased at the compliment from the Autobot leader or not.

"Who else is going with you?" Wheeljack asked intelligently.

"Rachet, you, Ironhide, Red Alert, Hound, Jazz and Bumblebee. Hopefully we will be back again before anyone misses us."

Prime moved to the console, his large blue hands tapping in the coordinates for the warp gate to Earth. Switching on his comm-link, he radioed the others and told them of the situation with the instructions to meet him in the warp room. They each radioed back in the affirmative, telling him that they were on their way.

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_I floated through darkness and pain, only vaguely aware of having sunk to the console in complete and utter exhaustion some time ago. My mind was a whirlwind of half remembered imagines and thoughts, though none of them stirred any emotion within me. _

_All I knew was pain. Utter agony ripped through me, and I felt as if a million wounds were being opened and re opened over my entire body. The pain pulsed through my veins with every pounding heart beat, inflaming my terrified mind like a vial disease, pillaging my soul. _

_Through the haze of things not quite remembered or totally forgotten, a white hot fire fueled me. It burned with a kind of single-minded passion that I never would have thought that I had. _

_Revenge._

_Revenge for what the bastard did to me. _

_My ragged soul longed to cross over that cool river into the gentle morning mists of the next life that rose before my as I lay dying, but the fire in my heart drove me to live. I MUST live. I had to live and cut down the monster that had doomed me to a slow and painful death._

_So, I got up. _

_And I somehow got down from that console._

_And I started walking. _

_An eye for and eye. No longer revenge, but justice. Not to reek my own vengeance, but to save another life from my fate at his hands. _

_Limping like a lame dog I made my way back to the hell hole I had escaped from, and somehow I knew that God was watching over my shoulder. Not yet, He told me, you have one last thing you need to do. _

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Lost in the enigma of his own thoughts, Hook slowly ambled down the poorly lit corridor to his laboratory, separate from Starscream's. He wanted to check on his current experiment, as he probably needed to give it another dose of anti-rejection drugs.

The well-oiled door (unusual to find on that rust-bucket of a base) slid easily into the wall, letting the cool, green tinted light from within spill into the corridor. Hook smiled to himself. This was HIS place of work, where Megatron for the most part let him have free rein. Unlike Starscream, he was an experimenter, not a researcher.

Mostly unoccupied cages lined one wall, save for a black panther in the far corner which snarled at him as he entered, barring it's fangs and clawing through the cage bars at him. Hook smiled to himself, pleased that the specimen was hardy and aggressive. He wanted exactly those sort of genes to introduce into his main experiment.

Farther back in the inner most sanctum of his lab was a large steel slab set between an array of computers. Like a small operating theater, it had tools and diagnostics equipment all around it, the sharp cutting and prying instruments hanging like spiders over the small slab.

It was just the way he had left it, except that his subject was gone.

Broken wires and tubes dribbling blue fluid were strewn over its sides, ripped violently away from his subject's body.

Hook gasped. "What? NO!"

He lunged forward towards the slab, the alarms on the monitoring equipment warbling in his audios.

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_It was almost time. _

_I stood concealed in the shadows, leaning heavily on the console beside me that was obviously built for Hook's minicon assistants. _

_My breathing came in measured, ragged gasps, a gurgling sound welling up inside my chest._

_It was almost time._

_I prayed like I had never prayed before that the monster would only take another step and lean, if only for an instant, over the slab. My hand rested on a dial on the control panel which I had seen him use before to create an impenetrable force-field around the slab that didn't let anything in- or out. _

_A force-field that was only an atom thick. _

_Like an infinitely sharp knife. _

_If only he would lean over into the range of the force-field, it would slice cleanly through his body before he even knew what was happening. _

_Like the wrath of God. _

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"NO! Ugh!" Hook cried again in dismayed rage. "Starscream had something to do with this; I KNOW HE DID!"

In anger he struck out at the nearest monitor, smashing his fist through it in a shower of sparks. The alarm faded and died.

"Him AND that PATHETIC human female sabotaged MY experiment! UGH!" He stomped out of the room, the doors hissing shut behind him, intent of extracting his vengeance by ridding himself of the scientist who had for so long been a thorn in his side.

Killing the human female was a perk too.

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"Autobots; Transform!" Prime called out. His robotic form contorted and twisted in on itself, different parts sliding around and locking into place, forming a futuristic looking truck. The others present followed suit, their bodies shifting and rearranging themselves into different shapes as well. The enormous steel room where previously eight towering robots had stood now contained an ambulance, two sports cars, a jeep, a VW bug, a truck, an SUV, and a futuristic hovercraft.

"Engage Warp Drive!" Prime called out again from his alt. Mode.

Suddenly a shivering wall of purple energy appeared in front of them, unfolding itself from an infinatly small point until it resembled a giant holo-screen.

"Alright men. We're going to warp into the Decepticon's temporary base on Earth. It won't be easy, but we have the element of surprise on our side. This is a rescue mission, so as soon as we have liberated the prisoners, we pull out!"

"Yes Sir!" Came the enthusiastic answering chorus, save for Red Alert, who muttered something suspiciously like 'Oh, goodie...'

"LAUNCH!" The warp gate shivered with the command and blossomed out towards them like an expanding balloon. At the same time, the waiting vehicles were stretched beyond there physical forms, being pulled away into another place. For an instant, they were stretched so far as to look like thin ribbons of color, and then they vanished all-together, winking out of that existence and into another against all laws of physics.

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_Unbidden, images and memories flashed through my mind, making me gasp painfully in recognition. _

_I had to get to Starscream's lab._

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Hook stormed down the long corridor, fuming, pulling his blaster from subspace as he went, intending to blow the 'Screamer's head off on sight.

He didn't quite make it through the door when a whooshing sound filled the hallway, followed by a wall of purple light appearing from no where in front of him.

"What the...?" He gasped, rasing his blaster as eight shadowy forms appeared in the cramped hallway. As they quickly solidified, Hook saw that they bore the hated red insignia of the Autobots.

Starscream must have heard the warp gate activating or else somehow known what was going on because at that moment he came skidding out of his lab, nearly bowling into Hook. Drawing his Vibro Sword from subspace, Starscream defiantly stared down the eight Autobots as they transformed back into robot mode.

For a split second, silent recognition passed between the two groups before a feral cry was let loose, and they went to war.

"_Starscream will have to wait until I finish these invaders off..." _

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Dimly Neera was aware of from noise outside, and her eyes fluttered open as the air from Starscream rushing hurriedly past buffeted her soundly. Though she desperately wanted to see what was going on to make such a racket, her body refused to yield to her orders, and was content to simply lie there, mentally fatigued. She longed to fall back into the blissful arms of sleep, but curiosity prevented her.

After a while the noise grew farther away, and Neera suspected that whatever was taking place had moved away from her.

Then suddenly, to her great surprise, the gargantuan doors slid apart, disgorging a small figure into the laboratory.

And what she saw made her want to gag.

Every inch of the figures body was either covered in dry, cracking blood or crude metal plates. Half of its head had been replaced by some sort of steel mask, metal wires extending from it under the blistered skin. One eye was no longer an eye at all, but a glowing blue socket.

Wires trailed from its back, head and chest, dragging along the floor. And slowly, like water dripping from a steadily emptying cup, small drops of blood fell to the floor.

Its chest heaved in an unnatural, abbreviated way as it breathed accompanied, by a sickening gurgling sound.

"Neera..." It whispered quietly, its voice rough and raw. And suddenly, she recognized the untouched half of the face, the pleading, desperate look in its remaining eye, the soft voice.

"Jonas!"

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This will be it for ya'll for a few days until I get back from vacation.

Hasta Luego!

P.S : Sry, I don't know what Ironhide transforms into, so I made him a hover-craft.


	6. Rescue

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A loud crash awoke Axel from the involuntary recharge he had slipped into sometime during the night. He jerked his head up from where it had fallen against his chest, his optics lighting up a pale blue that shone through the dark prison cell.

Like a brass band playing way out of tune, a jarring discord of noise arose again from somewhere near him, the sound easily passing through the walls like they were made of paper. Axel rose to his feet, focusing his sensors on the sound. It couldn't be.

It was.

Laser fire sputtered around him somewhere, screams and grunts of pain puncturing its ceaseless wail when the molten blasts of light struck their target with the force of a small bomb. A fight- mammoth in proportions by the sound of it- had erupted sometime while he slept. But as long as the battle didn't enter his prison, he wouldn't have to get involved. The last thing Axel wanted was to have to fight someone. It was... to painful.

Then, like a sharp thrust in his CPU, the little minicon remembered Neera. His partner might be in danger from the collateral damage.

His sensors suddenly buzzing on full alert, Axel gingerly reached out to Neera, and found that the iron clad wall which had untouchably separated them before had corroded. In his mind's eye, the spikes were rusted and breaking off, small holes appearing in the wall, the wonderful, soft white light of her soul shining through the cracks. Axel allowed himself a short sigh of relief. At least she was still alive.

Cautiously, he pressed against the cracks in the barrier, feeling them buckle under his force. He pressed harder, forcing his presence through the holes, expanding them, sending a spider-web of cracks crawling up the wall. Slowly, ever so slowly, it began to crumble.

But the force he was using to break down the wall kept on going. It hit Neera's mind directly, and he felt her soft mental scream before the dark shadow of unconsciousness fell over him. But not his unconsciousness; Neera's

Axel panicked.

What had he done?

He had hurt her by accident with barely enough force to even affect a Transformer partner. But her fragile mind couldn't hold up against it.

_No... _He moaned in fear and anger at himself. He had hurt her.

But I only wanted to help her...

You hurt someone, again.

No... I only wanted to find her- to save her...

And suddenly, a sight through eyes that were not his own swept through his mind. He was high up, much more so than he should have been, on a cold steel table. Equipment he could not identify surrounded him. He shivered with a cold he shouldn't have felt. There were goosebumps on his skin.

Skin? What skin?

Axel inhaled sharply, his energon pump seizing. Neera. He was looking through her eyes.

Then, he saw something terrible. A human- an awfully mutilated human- stood in front of him/ Neera, a pleading, sorrowfully, pained look marring his features, or what was left of them. A name came to him.

Jonas.

Oh, Primus! They had finally found Jonas!

Jonas slowly approached him/ Neera, his lips parting to speak, but before he could hear anything, Neera fell forward into the darkness that he had caused.

No, he wasn't looking through her eyes, he was only seeing what she remembered. But the vision did accomplish one thing.

Axel knew where Neera was.

A blind passion over came him, and he felt himself pull his ion cannon from sub-space before he knew what he was doing. Swinging the blaster around, he trained its sights on the steel wall and fired. The wall never stood a chance.

The blast kept going and impacted the hallway across from him, a white hot fireball rising up from where it struck.

Before he had worried about discretion, keeping him from breaking out. Now, he couldn't care less.

Axel shot out into the hall, his body twisting and shifting with the momentum into an entirely different shape. His legs rotated and contracted around behind him, his arms flipping over his head even as his torso rotated and chinked into a different place. Hitting the ground on his back tire, Axel reeved his engine and shot off down the hall in a shower of sparks, his motorcycle form no more visible than a silver blur.

Left. Right. Left. Axel skidded around the corners, headless of who he passed. All around him robots of mammoth proportions compared to his small size were locked in heated combat, clashing and flying apart in a frenzy of laser fire and sword slashing. Battle cries and grunts of pain, the sound of ripping metal like fingernails on a chalkboard, the short but deadly screeches of laser blasts, the pounding, groaning, crashing symphony from Hell roared like a wild fire between the combatants. Animosity and hate saturated the air like poison gas, the two factions indistinguishable from one another.

Axel roared around Autobot and Decepticon alike, speeding between their legs and under their feet, ignoring the triumphant cries behind him when they spotted the small minicon. Fear unbridled arose in Axel, remembering the days of his enslavement... and his enslavement of others.

Just keep going...Just keep going...Just keep going...

He chanted to the rhythm of his engine.

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I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it.

Jonas was alive, but... not alive at the same time.

"Jonas!" I cried, my voice cracking pitifully. Tears ran unchecked down my face, my heart grinding to a painfully stop. He was alive, but somehow I knew, not for long.

It felt like someone was prying my chest open with a crowbar when he tried so hard to smile.

"You're ok..." He whispered. I sobbed, my face screwing up in pain.

"Yeah, I-I'm ok..." I tired to respond, but the words wouldn't come out properly.

Suddenly, I felt something probing my mind, softly at first, than harder and harder until I gave a weak cry and fell over, feeling as though I had been impaled through the skull. Darkness wrapped about me, no matter how much I tried to push it away.

-----------------------------------------

Something called to me, prodded me, and then I was staring up at a familiar metal being hovering over me, worry creasing his face, noise erupting in the background.

"Axel!" I whispered as forcefully as I could. He seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, then his strong arms came around me, cuddling me carefully to him as he lifted me from the steel slab. I was too weak to do much more than lie there limply, my mind going sluggishly slow. My vision shimmered as he somehow got down from that great height, walking towards the door. Then suddenly, something happened to Axel and I felt his body shift beneath me, his arms no longer holding me, then just as suddenly I found myself slumped forwards against the handlebars of a large European style motorcycle, my breathing labored. Straps came out and wrapped snugly around me legs, keeping me from falling off as I surely would have other wise.

Axel reeved his engine, then sped out into the hallway. The noise increased tenfold, and I tried weakly to shift my head and see what was going on, but something hindered the motion. I lifted my hand to touch my face, and found that it touched a motor-cross style helmet instead. I had no idea where that had come from, but my mind resisted thinking too hard on it.

Images shimmered before me, indistinct shapes embroiled in furious motions all about me. I flinched instinctually as something screamed by over head in an angry streak of light, and I hugged my body as close to Axel's reassuring bulk as I could, screwing my eyes shut against the noise assailing my ears, pain stabbing through my head with every vibration.

-Hold on just a little bit longer. I'll get us out of here...-

Came Axel's wonderful, soft timbre, only this time, it resonated inside the helmet rather than from his 'mouth'. I wondered why he didn't speak mentally instead...

My stomach lurched up into my throat as something lifted Axel off the floor with me still attached. I wanted to cry out, but no sound would come.

"Optimus, Sir! I've got them!" I heard our captor cry out.

"Good work, Hound! Autobots, return to base!" Another voice answered.

Then the same, sickening sensation of breaking apart washed over me, my body stretching between here and there, and BEING here and there. I felt as though I was being pulled inside out, and my body slumped completely limp against Axel even as he too was breaking apart.

The last thing I remembered thinking was; _This is getting kind of old..._

Then unconsciousness claimed me once more.

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Ta-da! I'm back!

More soon to come!


	7. Murderer!

1Ta-da! I'm back! Sorry for the reaaallllly long wait...my muse kinda deserted me there for a while. Also, I had to go through an exhausting week of Karate camp. It's hard when you're going for black belt, ugh!

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_I watched the nameless robot speed out of the room with Neera, a strange sense of peace coming over me. Somehow, I knew she would be safe._

_I felt as though the tremendous weight of pain and fear had lifted from me. My body twisted, and then the smooth, cold floor was under me. I never felt the fall. _

_The world began to fade around me. A hush fell over the sounds of laser fire like a mother quieting her child in the still of night. A soft gray fog came up around me, taking away the pain._

_If this is death, I thought, it isn't so bad._

_I saw a field, a large, unending field blanketed with wildflowers. A gentle breeze stirred the long waves of amber grass that I could almost touch. I saw a wide, dirt road leading off through the field into the distance, reaching out into eternity. _

_And I smiled. No, the road doesn't end after all. I keeps going._

_And back on that cold steel floor, in the middle of a bloody battle, total peace descended over me. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, or legions of trumpeting angels, but I had found my way Home just the same._

_My eyes closed on this world, never to open again._

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Crouching, coiled tightly ready to spring, Hook blinked in mild surprise as his foes suddenly warped out of the battlefield. His chest placed heaved, his laser core vibrating with the battle rush. Cowards, he thought, running away like that. He lowered his sword, the tip clinking loudly against the floor. It was even worse because they also got away with the minicon.

"&$#!"

"You fool! You let them get away!" Starscream cried, pointing his sword threateningly at Hook. "Now I'll never get to finish my experiment!" With a strangled cry of frustration, he thrust the blade into the steel floor where it held, quivering with the impact.

Hook felt a twisted smile curve up his lips, his anger literally oozing from him. The screamer took his experiment from him. He would pay dearly for it.

He lifted his own sword and silently approached his nemesis, the demented leer never once faltering. No one who crossed Hook had ever live to tell the tale. The scientist was as feared as Megatron, but while Megatron commanded trembling obedience for his shear size and power, Hook terrified those around him because he was completely insane.

Starscream, all the while with his back to his stalker, seemed completely unaware of this, however. He had stopped in his tracks, staring at something on the floor, first with curiosity then with disgust.

"This pathetic thing wouldn't happen to be YOUR experiment by any chance, would it?" he asked, slightly amused, then turned just in time to see Hook mere feet from him, slowly bringing his sword down from its raised striking position and stowing it in sub-space. He scoffed. So, Hook had it out for him, after all. Moron. Unlike the rest of the decepticons, Starscream was a scientist as well, meaning that he was an even match for Hook in intellect which- next to his insanity- was the blue bot's greatest weapon.

Starscream couldn't deny to himself though that for a moment his laser core had clenched with fear.

Hook stared down at the thing on the floor, then slowly knelt next to it, passing his hand over it to scan it for life signs. Finding none, he clenched his fist tightly, grinding his face plates.

Starscream laughed. "You had better keep a eye on your experiments next time. The more intelligent ones have a habit of escaping." Hook glared up at Starscream, then gingerly scooped up the dead human in his hands, cupping it like the precious thing it was to him. Though he couldn't care less for the humans themselves, he had spent precious time and energy on this one, growing attached to it as a scientific curiosity. Oh well, time to resort to plan B.

He stood without and word, turning to head back to his lab. Then, as if on an afterthought, he looked back to Starscream. "Remind me to dismember you later!" He shouted.

Starscream chuckled and yanked his sword out of the floor, returning it to its place as his wing on his back.. "Yeah, sure."

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There was darkness. Yet somewhere, there was also awareness. Otherwise the darkness wouldn't be noticed...right? The darkness lightened to gray and suddenly there were sounds as well. Soft, soothing sounds. And then there were loud, jarring sounds that shook the fragile little world. She just wanted them to go away and leave her alone...

Wait a minute...she? Yeah, that's right, the awareness is a somebody...

...who?

...me. And with that mystery solved, Neera slowly stared coming back to herself, and all the memories from the last few days crowded in one her. They crowded her little dark world until there was no more room for her and she blinked her eyes open into consciousness.

Everything appeared fuzzy at first before slowly resolving itself to form the shape of a large figure bending over her. Starscream!

...No, wait, it couldn't be starscream...though his robot was the same red and white colors, it was differently shaped.

It's large face cracked into a smile

"Ah! Your awake." The robot said cheerfully.

Big. Neera thought. Really, really big.

She remembered Starscream and Hook. She remembered what those big robots had done to Jonas.

Terror seized her in its icy grip, freezing her breath in her chest, and instinctually Neera reached out to Axel with her mind, only to find that he wasn't there with her.

Though she wanted to bolt upright, there was only a small twitch in response. Though she wanted to scream, her breath wouldn't come. Neera felt tired and drained, and all her wild passion seeped from her before she could do anything with it.

The moment passed, she let out a long breath as though she had been holding it her whole life, feeling more like she had just breasted the tape at the end of a tri-atholon rather than just having woken up. What was worst, a familiar tightness began to constrict her chest, the mounting pressure of a coming headache building between her eyes.

"Yeah, I know that feeling. Don't worry, I'll have you up and around before you know it." Neera ignored his words. Her mind stretched out, looking for Axel. She found him in some place far from her, alive at least. She touched him, receiving his answering whisper that she felt more than heard, taking comfort in it.

"What have you done with Axel?" She croaked, her voice louder than she thought it would be.

The robot looked uncomfortable for a minute before hesitantly answering, "Well, right now he's being held under arrest until his trial. Sorry, kid."

The gears in her mind ground against each other, screeching to a halt. Axel? Under arrest? Whoa, wait a minute- what was going on here?

"Huh? Under arrest? For what? By whose order?"

The robot sighed, straightening up and moving across the room from her. He taped on the keyboard of one of the monitors in the room, bringing up a lengthy text in some alien language.

"See? It's a warrant from Autobot high command for us to bring him in for crimes against the State."

Anger welled up in me. How _dare_ they? What right did they have to take him away from me?

"Crimes? _What_ crimes?" I challenged. Now he really looked uncomfortable. He looked around, rubbing the back of his neck before finally sighing and dropping his arm.

"Look, I'm not supposed to be telling you this, but I think you deserve to know, being his partner and all." He sighed again. "Kid, Axel's a murder. He's killed primus knows how many autobots. Decepticons too, though we're not so sure about that one. At first he was an autobot, but then he betrayed us for the decepticons. Then he turned on them too. Like I said; sorry kid, but that minicon's downright rotten."

"No." Neera whispered in protest. Angry tears of hurt rolled down her cheeks. Anger at those who took Axel. Anger at herself for letting them get to him. But at the same time, a sharp pang of betrayal for the accusations that she somehow knew to be true. Axel was a part of her mind, always and forever, and he did not deny the charges. His silence was her torture. If only he would deny it, she would believe him. But mute he stayed, a gentle presence that she was suddenly afraid of. But how could he be a killer? He was alway so kind with her...Could it have been that he was only pretending?

_No. _Came the steadfast answer. _I love you, Neera._

She started up in panic, but was held back by a giant hand that gently but firmly pushed her back down.

"What are they going to do with him?" She asked pleadingly, her whole body trembling.

The robot didn't answer her. Somehow, he didn't have to.

Her soul gave an anguished cry that sounded as only a whimper.

"Don't worry; there's always the chance that they'll lighten his sentence. All is not lost yet."

No, all was not lost. You still have me, she though reverently. Neera's eyes darkened dangerously. Why should she let them do anything to Axel? She was his partner- wasn't she supposed to protect him as well?

_But how..._

And suddenly, she heard a another voice, deeper and wiser than Axel's yet no less gentle.

_You are destined to do great things with the power you have been given. I will guide you._

Suddenly all the fatigue plaguing her body drained away, leaving her mind crystal clear. She looked down and saw a faint white glow around her body that slowly faded. The robot in the room with her gasped, backing away in a combination of awe and fright.

Neera sat up, stretching out her mind into the room around her. She could somehow _feel_ the mammoth doorfeel the inner circuitry beneath its cool steel plating. Somehow simply knowing what to do, she reached out to one of the gears and tweaked it, feeling it give under her mental touch and letting the door slide open.

Neera became giddy with excitement. Now _that_ was cool.

She slid down off the table and landed with a soft thump, the impact jarring her knees. That didn't stop her though. She raced out of the door unbarred, heading for the glowing light she somehow saw that she knew to be Axel.

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Rachet shook himself out of his stupor and radioed Prime.

-It's just like you thought, Optimus. Their connection does have something to do with the Matrix! It-it must have touched her somehow, because suddenly she just made the door open with her mind and ran right out of it!-

-hmmm...Interesting. I'll have Mirage track her down; I want to talk with her.-

-Sir, what about her partner, Axel?-

-I'll have a talk with the member of the council. Perhaps they can be made to change their minds-

-But he's a murder! He killed our own troops! How can you possibly support him?-

-It's not Axel alone, Rachet, but the girl as well. They are connected to the Matrix somehow and I have a feeling that they will be vitally important to us in the future-

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Hook glanced between the readings on his monitor screen and the lifeless robot body lying prone on the examination slab. On the slab directly adjacent to it was his failed experiment, all but useless to him now save for creating his own personal drone from the remnants of its mind. Wires

connected its head to a large, whirring machine that was in turn connected to the robot body.

He made some minor adjustments on his computer, then flipped a switch that turned on the machines and filled the room with a crackling light. When it died, he eagerly watched the readings of the robot body, looking desperately for any sign of life. Slowly, agonizingly, the moments ticked away, then ever so slightly the fingers twitched, the spark rate monitor spiking.

"Yes!" Hook cried in triumph. He had created something even better than he had original intended upon taking the captured human from Cyclonus- another transformer that would obey his every command. What he didn't know was that the personality it was created from was far too willful to be controlled by a measly little chip.

He did, however, see two sky blue optic flash on.

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Well, what do you think? If you liked it PLEASE REVIEW! You guys are the only reason I continue on this story- if I don't know that you like it, I WON'T CONTINUE!

(A/N) No, Jonas was not brought back from the dead. He is thoroughly and soundly dead. Hook just copied his personality to use in a new Transformer.


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